Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Carlsen’s Swindle
The 2024 Julius Baer Generation Cup (JBGC) was the fourth and final online event of the Champions Chess Tour (CCT). In 2024 the CCT featured four online events and live, in-person Finals and was Chess.com’s most important tournament of the year. The 2024 JBGC started on September 25, with a prize fund of $300,000.
A total of 56 players took part in this event distributed in three divisions. Eight players played in Division I, 16 in Division II, and 32 in Division III.
Top GMs who took part were Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Ian Nepomniachtchi among others.
The format for the 2024 JBGC featured a KO system with four-game matches and time control 10+2. In the case of players tying after their regular match, one Armageddon game decided the winner of the match.
In the third day of the online competition, Magnus Carlsen played Ian Nepomniachtchi and all four games from their regular match ended in draws. Then they played the tiebreak with Carlsen playing the black pieces and seven minutes and 28 seconds on his clock. Nepomniachtchi with white pieces had 10 minutes. Without increment added in the armageddon, the game was a question of nerves and luck.
Carlsen blundered a full exchange in move 19. Later he explained his thought process as follows: “Obviously, that was a massive blunder, and I really feel like I got away with one. I had a really, really pleasant position, and I was sitting there thinking I can do anything I want, and I felt like f5 was a little bit too early, but then I thought, yeah, it looks so good. Then he played f4 and I was like, oh, I fell for the oldest trick he had.”
Speculating with the time and always choosing the sharpest moves, Carlsen played risky and sacrificed a second exchange with 22.Rxe5. That drastic decision proved to favor him as his position steadily improved and his rival experienced time trouble.
It is worth saying that some players combined online rapid games with over-the-board competition. Ian Nepomniachtchi for example, simultaneously played in the JBGC and in the Gashimov Memorial taking place in Susha, Azerbaijan. Although Nepomniachtchi won in Susha, he couldn’t in JBGC.
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